Rotman School of Business

Rotman MBA Interview

At the Rotman School, the final stage of the application is the admissions interview. If you receive an interview invitation from us, first of all congratulations your application made a very good first impression and we wanted to meet with you in person! Second, the admissions interview means you’re half-way there.

Some people see the admissions interview as a routine procedure. However in fact it is way beyond that. At the Rotman School, we assess the applications from a holistic perspective; this means all components carry equal weight: Essays, work experience, GPA, GMAT/GRE, references and admissions interview. Before we finalize our admission decision, we definitely make sure we meet with the candidate either in-person or via Skype or phone.

If you are invited to the Rotman MBA interview, you should realize that it is your chance to strengthen that first impression that you had made on paper and to share some of the things you were not able to share in your essays or your resume would not tell us!

Rotman MBA Frequently Asked Interview Questions

Introduce yourself

Tel us 3 key learnings from your work experience.

Why MBA

Why do you want to do MBA at this stage in your life/ career

One reason that we should not select you?

What are your short- and long-term career goals? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Tell us about a challenging situation that you faced? How did you resolve it?

What are your greatest strengths? Give examples

What are your weaknesses? Give examples

What would you describe are your greatest achievement to date?

Interests and Hobbies – Be prepared!.. questions as basic as “Why do you do poetry (or any other activity)” may be asked.

Do you have any questions for us?

Rotman MBA Interview Questions - 5

We ended up conducting the interview at the lobby/cafe of the area because the conference rooms were being used by QS MBA for its preparation. I must say that Tara visiting me in my country made me 30% more nearly sure to choose Rotman.

We communicated via E-mail to meet up with each other, so prepare your mobile data!

When I met her, I gave her a firm handshake and thanked her for this opportunity. I asked her how is she and how she finds the Philippines so far. Moreover, I also suggested some places for her to visit the next time she comes back here.

She ordered a cup of tea, but I passed because my mind was so focused on the interview itself. There were a lot of questions, but what I remembered were the following:

1. She let me introduce myself first.

2. What accomplishment on your resume are you most proud of?

3. In what extracurricular activities were you involved during college?

4. What do you do exactly in your position?

5. I told her I convinced my president to increase the marketing budget in the company, so she asked me how I did that and what specific things I did.

6. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

7. What are your hobbies?

8. I think she also asked what my family does.

9. Why do you feel you need an MBA now?

10. Why do you want to study in Canada?

11. What specifically about our program attracted you to it?

12. What are your motivations and career goals?

13. What are your future plans immediately after MBA? Will you go back to your country or stay in Canada?

14. Will you continue to operate your business while having your MBA?

15. What schools did you applied to? (I enumerated them but said, “But my top choice is Rotman because _____.”

16. Give me 3-5 words to describe yourself.

17. What is missing between who you are now and the CEO you want to be? How are you developing these traits?

18. Why is teamwork important?

19. How will you contribute to Rotman?

20. Anything you want to say to AdCom?

21. How are you going to finance your MBA? (I think she asked this because of the scholarship.)

22. Any questions? Prepare 3-5 questions because one question feels so awkward when you are in the interview itself.

Tara is very kind in my opinion, but you could really feel her professionalism, of course. I was so nervous the whole time because I don’t really do great in interviews since I don’t like talking about myself. Thankfully, I still got accepted!Later that day in the afternoon, I joined QS MBA fair and talks. Tara conducted her talk too. Both Rotman and Schulich presented their MBA offerings, but, at that time, I was convinced that Rotman is the one that I want because of Tara’s presentation.

During the fair itself, I intended to talk with her more, but she was so busy talking to other interested students that I just bid a sweet goodbye to her and told her again how thankful I am for the opportunity.

Frequently asked Situational and Behavioural interview questions

Rotman MBA Interview Questions - 4

I had the interview through Skype with an adcom member. The interview was quite relaxed and the adcom was very friendly.

Here are the questions:

– Introduce about yourself

– Why do you want to do your MBA now? – Couple of follow-up questions to go into the detail

– What is your post MBA goal? why? if you cannot achieve this goal, what will be your plan B?

– What motivate you to stay far away from your family and apply to Rotman? (I am international applicant)

– Tell me about an experience when you lead a team

– What type of leader your teammate will think of you?

– How do you deal with conflict?

– 15 mins for question

I spent an hour on the interview but didn’t feel any stress at all. The interviewer did a great job to keep a relaxed mode and have me perform at my best.

Good luck to you all.

Rotman MBA Interview Questions - 3

I had an interview a couple of days ago. It went well. More relaxed than interviews with the US universities. Questions like – A time when something went wrong and how you dealt with it… Long term plans?… Why MBA… What are your hobbies? .. An achievement you are most proud of… Interview went on for about an hour!

Have a Skype Interview ?

Rotman MBA Interview Questions - 2

I was recently interviewed by Marie, it was a pleasant interview and lasted approximately 20 minutes. Some of the questions were –

Explaining present job profile

An incident where I managed a tough subordinate or a team mate.

An incident where I creatively resolved a problem

My weakness

That’s all I can recollect right now. Overall, it was not at all a pressure interview….Probably being interviewed by Marie made it all the more relaxed.

I am being asked to wait till November 2012 for the final result.

My suggestion to you would be to be prepared with general questions and thorough with your application, in totality you should be able to reflect a well knit picture of yourself with minimal loose ends.

All the very best to you for the process ahead.

Rotman MBA Interview Questions - 1

The interview is more of a chat than an interview, its rather laid back. Most of the questions they ask are pretty run of the mill. You should be able to talk precisely about why is it that you want to get an MBA, why at this particular school and what will you do after you have it. You should be able to describe what it is that you do in your current job. The interviewer also asked me what kind of things I do for fun and what I think are my two greatest achievements. She told me she was born in the same city as I, so we had something in common to chit chat about.

Be prepared to ask them a few questions after they are done asking you. If you are an international student, this is the best chance you’ll get at interacting with a Rotman person. Just avoid being negative. I asked her that though everything else seemed great about Rotman, I got the sense that the alumni network and career services weren’t as great as Ivey or Schulich or McGill. Big mistake. She got all defensive and it got uncomfortable for a moment there.

Unlike a lot of other b-schools which have faculty or 2nd year students interview you, its a staff member (they have a bunch of people called Assistant Directors) who’ll do it at Rotman. So it all seems like an exercise to gauge your spoken English skills. Think of it as an HR interview for a job.

Rotman MBA Interview Questions - How you should prepare

For those who are preparing their MBA applications would know very well that the admissions interview is very important and should not be taken lightly.

Some people see the admissions interview as a routine procedure. However in fact it is way beyond that. At the Rotman School, we assess the applications from a holistic perspective; this means all components carry equal weight: Essays, work experience, GPA, GMAT/GRE, references and admissions interview. Before we finalize our admission decision, we definitely make sure we meet with the candidate either in-person or via Skype or phone.

If you are invited to an admissions interview, you should realize that it is your chance to strengthen that first impression that you had made on paper and to share some of the things you were not able to share in your essays or your resume would not tell us!

Tip #1: Don’t repeat your essays! We already read them. If you’d like to elaborate an example you provided in your essays, that’s fine however telling exactly the same things is not a good idea. I have been asked many times if we really take the time to read all the essays and references, the answer is yes, we do take the time to read your application because it is our first step to assess your overall candidacy. Especially at theRotmanSchool, you are not just a GPA or GMAT score.

Tip #2: Don’t read your resume. We would like to go beyond your resume and hear your accomplishments in your own words. Reading your resume will also prevent you from making eye contact and using your body language effectively!

The interview is a great venue for you to show your soft skills. I am sure you have heard this many times from other business school representatives as well; soft skills are as important as technical skills.

Tip #3: Your admissions interview starts well before the actual interview. If you made phone calls or email inquiries, we have them in your file. How you present yourself matters a lot to us. We are looking for candidates with very strong communication skills. Therefore how you resolve issues; such as the inquiries you have made to find out about your test score or transcripts may be good indicators of your communication skills! The MBA is not just a great business education; the business school you choose to attend will provide you with many networking opportunities; given the caliber of the faculty, guest speakers and industry leaders as well as the great students in the program; having good interpersonal and communication skills is a must for the Rotman MBA program.

Tip #4: Think of your admissions interview like a job interview. What do most recruiters tell you? The interview starts when you report to the receptionist. It’s the same with business schools; we would like to see candidates who are professional at all times.

Asking questions at the end of the interview or even throughout the interview is a very good practice. It shows that you have done some research about the program and would like to learn more. Furthermore, you can create an engaging atmosphere with your questions. However:

Tip #5: Asking meaningful questions will accomplish the abovementioned. If you ask the tuition fee or anything that can be easily found on the website, your questions will not set you apart. The questions at the end are not your chance to do research. At the end of a job interview, asking a couple of relevant questions to show your interest and your research is considered to be one of the best practices. You can apply the same logic. If you have too many questions and if they’re generic questions, it shows that you have not done much research; this is not a good sign. Most business schools have comprehensive websites where you can read about the programs, watch videos about the student experience and the school.

Tip #6: The manner is also important. If you ask your questions one after another without any context, you might leave the impression that you are asking random questions or interrogating the admissions person. The interview should be interactive and engaging. The idea is to get to know you better and to provide you with an opportunity to learn more about us.

Last but not least Tip #7: Be professional and dress for success! You are about to attend a business school to pursue your MBA degree; while going back to school might be exciting, the business school is like the business world. You will be meeting with individuals from all over the world and who knows you might be doing business with them down the road.

If you think about it, the interview is actually one of the few parts of the application that is still within your control. It’s a great venue to present your best self and clarify any concerns the admissions person may have about your application.

Preparing for your admissions interview and need some tips? Enjoy our new videos on our YouTube Channel. You will learn more about theRotmanSchool and get some cool tips for your essays and the admissions interview!